Science Hack Day Dublin offers to cover childcare and travel costs for attendees

If prohibitive childcare costs were keeping you from signing up to Science Hack Day Dublin, they’ve got you covered. Image via MNStudio/Shutterstock

Science Hack Day Dublin has taken an extra step to ensure the upcoming event is open to anyone who is interested in getting creative with science.

Science Hack Day is a 36-hour hardware and software hackathon started by Ariel Waldman in San Francisco in 2010. The event quickly came to Irish shores with Science Hack Day Dublin, and co-founder David McKeown announced the dates for this year’s event at the Inspirefest Fringe festival earlier this year.

The 2015 event will take place from 14 to 15 November in University College Dublin.

It’s a social affair aimed at bringing creative people with a love for science together, be they designers, coders, scientists, engineers, makers or whatever. In the spirit of the maker movement, it’s a welcoming environment, but making an event free to attend for everyone requires more than just scrapping admission and providing meals.

“Attending can add extra costs to someone’s normal weekend expenses and this could make joining in the Science Hack Day fun an impossibility,” reads a new post on the event’s website.

‘We are trying this out. We hope it works and helps people’– SCIENCE HACK DAY DUBLIN

To counteract this, and minimise the barrier to entry to the event, the Science Hack Day Dublin committee has introduced both a childcare and travel bursary for attendees.

So, those who initially thought they couldn’t attend Science Hack Day Dublin because of childcare requirements and travel costs can think again.

Childcare costs for the day will be reimbursed and transport costs will be covered for those who are unemployed or on social welfare. All it takes is a form to be filled out, which you can find here, along with the FAQs.

In this explanatory Q&A, the team writes: “We are trying this out. We hope it works and helps people.”

That said, if the travel and childcare scheme proves immensely popular, the event planners might just run out of money, in which case, reimbursements will be made on a first come, first served basis.

Of course, the more support the event gets from sponsors, the more it can afford initiatives such as this to ensure diversity in its attendance. (Yes, that link is a hint.)

The organisers added that they are open to any more suggestions that will help make this an inclusive event, and they can be sent via email to hello@sciencehackdaydublin.com.